The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

MIRA

I manage to break the k**s and step away quickly, meeting Tristan’s frustrated gaze. But the next moment dark smoke surrounds him and concentrating on his neck lifts him up in the air. Smoke? Since when Derrien’s magic looks like that?

“Derrien, please”, I run-up to the gerdian, “This was completely coincidental… he…”

“Coincidental?”, the dark lord grits through his teeth, not even bothering to look at me, “He confesses to you and then forces a k**s on you and you say it’s a coincidence?!”

“Gods, Derrien, it doesn’t matter! Please, don’t kill him!”, I beg, standing in front of him, pressing my arms into his chest.

“You care about him?!”, he says in disbelief, his eyes full of dark magic. A chill goes down my spine. I’ve never seen him like this!

“I know him for most of my life! He is a friend of the family! And… and he is important in the Kingdom! If you kill him, that would be bad… and probably even for you!”

“Oh, so now it’s me that you care about?!”, he chuckles bitterly, clearly not impressed.

“I don’t want anyone else to die here! Is that so much to ask!”, I shout and hit him on his chest with my fists. Two desperate kicks bring the magic down and Tristan falls to the ground. I look back at him quickly and see how red he is. But he is alive.

“Did you just raise your hand at me?”, Derrien growls, “For HIM?!”

Oh, gods… That’s bad. Bad, bad, bad… He is stepping towards me, backing me into a wall.

“It’s not like that,” I squeak, “Let’s just go inside and talk… Please…”

“Mira…”, I hear Tristan’s hoarse voice and see him trying to crawl in my direction, “Don’t hurt her!”

Oh, he did not just say that! Damn it!

Dark flames appear at the tips of Derrien’s fingers and these are not the harmless type that he uses to transport us… These are deadly… I feel the aura of death from the gerdian for the first time and it’s so suffocating.

“Please, don’t!”, I beg, but he is not looking at me. And as if to make the matters worse, Tristan stands up and raises his head. He is not called the Sapphire Knight of the Kingdom for nothing. Honour is in his b***d and he is ready to accept his death with it.

For a few seconds, they look at each other and Derrien starts moving his hand, but I stand on my toes quickly and slide my hands to his neck and chin, turning his face to me and shout, “Rien, stop!”

The flames are gone. And I feel one of his hands on my waist, pulling me closer and then letting me go.

“Go get your bag, Mira!”, he says in a voice that is lower than usual but when he sees me hesitating, adds, “You just saved this dog’s life. Go. You have ten seconds.”

“Oh, gods! Thank you!”, I smile at him and bit my l*p, “Everything is ready! I will be back in five!”

I run quickly to my chambers and pick up the small brown leather bag that I have prepared for our journey. I close the door with magic and I am right in front of Derrien as soon as I promised. The two men are still staring at each other. And I silently pray that Tristan would keep his mouth shut right now.

“I am ready!”, I say to break the ice. Well, I know that’s not possible. But anything that distracts Derrien from murderous thoughts is great right now.

“Good”, he looks at me and his eyes soften a bit.

“You can’t take a participant of the Dark Selection out of the castle premises,” Tristan says all of a sudden, his eyes are on my bag and they are full of pain… I realize quickly what he is thinking right now… Nothing good probably…© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“You are not the one to talk right now about the rules!”, Derrien smirks at him and pulls me into his arms by my waist once again, “All participants of the Dark Selection are considered the property of gerdian lords. You aren’t even allowed to look at them, let alone touch them! I should have killed you right now and I only didn’t do it not to ruin lady Mira’s mood right before our date!”

He stresses out the last words and looks at me. I say nothing. Of course, he wouldn’t be explaining to Tristan of all the people where we are going and why… And neither can I… So Tristan will think what he will think…It doesn’t matter really… We aren’t engaged anymore and I am one of the participants. If I don’t run, sooner or later I will have to really be with one of the lords… And Derrien…

“When will you be back?”, Tristan’s voice is cold and emotionless, “I need to know as the supervisor of the Selection.”

“On Monday if everything goes good,” Derwood chuckles and now I want to hit him. We are only going for a day, for gods’ sake! That’s what he told me before. But he cruelly wants to cause as much pain to my ex-fiancé as possible.

“You can’t…”, the knight starts speaking.

“I can do whatever the hell I want, boy!”, Derrien growls, “I am an archduke of the Gerdian Empire and a general of our army! If today I want to take all the girls, neither my emperor nor your king would even say a word to me about it! And if I accidentally kill you, they will both close their eyes! Because no one except for you is stupid enough to make me their own enemy! Forget about Mira! She is off your limits! If you can’t handle it, resign from your duty here and go back to your court and look for a new fiancée to lick your wounds! Because the next time I see you speak or touch her, I would turn you to ashes! That’s a promise, Sapphire Knight!”

With that, flames of dark magic start slowly consuming us. Much slower than usual. Derrien is making a point here.

Tristan takes a step in our direction, hand on his sword. But I mouth, “Don’t you dare!”. And he stops. I smile apologetically and that’s when we disappear completely.

The transportation takes us to the back entrance of the castle. We appear to be standing on the small staircase outside of the building. But Derrien does not let go of me. Instead, he grasps my chin into his fingers and lifts it up so that I look at him.

“The same goes for you, Mira!”, he says in a warning tone, “If I see you speak to him then I…”

“You won’t”, I interrupt him and see a satisfied expression on his face. Playful even.

“Clever little mage”, he praises me and brushes over my lower l*p, “He is in the past, Mira. Forget about him.”

“Look,” I sign, “What you heard right now was our longest conversation. We’ve been engaged for years, but there isn’t much to remember. And it’s not like he confessed love to me right now..”

“It was a lot like confessing love to you…”, the gerdian smirks.

“And yet it wasn’t. You don’t know Tristan! He probably is just pissed that something did not go the way he planned,” I shake my shoulders, “That was also our first proper k**s…”

“And the last”, Derrien ads rashly, looking at me with sparks of dark magic dancing madly in his eyes.